Matrix Wiki talk:Manual of Style
Outliers A few outlying cases to consider, while I remember: Titles Normally, article names avoid characters' in-universe titles (e.g. Jason Lock rather than Commander Lock, Mifune not Captain Mifune); this is a pretty standard procedure in wikis, however there are some examples that make this a bit more difficult: * Councillor Grace vs. Grace * Agent Ash vs. Ash * Agent Bird vs. Bird (as in, the animals...) In these cases, if you disambiguate the former by including their titles, then the other Councilors, Agents etc. may have to follow suit... In other cases, the titles seem pretty integral to their names: * Mr. Black * Dame White (also, Agent White exists) * MtrWhite * Madame T (note that this is an alias, like Trinity, Neo or Morpheus) * Mister G, Mister P & Mister Y from An Easy One (also aliases) * Master Sting * Mr. Po * Mr. Bishop * Capt. Falco * Captain Sinclair * Father Mike * Father Jonas * SaintDaniel (another clear alias) * Sister Margaret * The Colonel / Torres * Baron Montesquiou Abbreviations Should these titles follow the commonly used abbreviation (with or without dots...), or expand it to help the reader (capitals or lower case)? * EMP * APU * VDTs * BTUs * SWAT * AI * EPOs * IRS D-base * RSI * SIMLO/TACACS/TAMIE/TIMCAMM/ZAITSO/SAMMUAL * EPN * SSR * AK (an alias...) Initials * Gerrard E. Krause (in-universe) * Nicky G. (in-universe) * Dane A. Davis (same person as Dane Davis?) * Kevin E. Carpenter (same person as Kevin Carpenter?) * David E. Campbell (same person as David Campbell?) Nicknames If redpills are known by their hacker aliases rather than their bluepill names (it would be a bit weird if we described the plot of the Matrix films referring to Neo as "Thomas A. Anderson" throughout), how about bluepills with nicknames? * Peter Williford/Pete * Jimmy Scarvone/Fingers Also * Sammy "Lilac" Wien/Sammy Wien/Lilac (an Exile) * Belinda "Bling Bling" Bernelli * Hardhat McCoy * Stephen Rollins/Rollins (Resistance operative known by his surname) * Jason Lock/Deadbolt * The Merovingian/The Frenchman * Seraph/Wingless Companies Should company suffixes be included, avoided, or follow common use (/common sense)? * Markov Corp Unnamed Some things just don't have names: * Goliath (pilot) * Unnamed Old Man * Unnamed hovercraft * Human Prisoner 1 * Human Prisoner 2 Others without names are given labels in credits etc. * FedEx Man * Old Man * Spoon Boy * Lieutenant * The Big Bald Man (and other "Q-Ball gang members") * Teacher (Kid's Story) What's the best way to be consistent about this? Other * Security Guard vs. The Security Guard vs. Security Guards Chuck more examples here if you find em! --xensyriaT 14:08, November 22, 2016 (UTC) EngVarMatrix Unlike Wikipedia, we're easily able to adopt consistent spelling across the Wiki, and it makes sense to use American spelling for an American franchise created by Americans and set in a (future, virtual) America. I've made most of the changes I can find, and also made a few decisions for consistency: * Councillor: while the American spelling is "councilor", the film credits, script etc. are all consistent in spelling this as "Councillor", so let's assume it's a quirk of Zion, and stick to it as a franchise-specific exception. * Theater: while some people still hold to a distinction between the performance of "Theatre" and movie / war "theaters", the distinction is becoming increasingly archaic, with "theater" becoming the standard for both uses. For consistency, I've used this throughout as the modern spelling. * Dialog: perhaps a bit more controversial, "dialog" began as computer jargon in the 1970s, but has started to become more widely used in American English than the word "dialogue" that it's replacing. As we're a sci-fi Wiki, looking to the future, and especially with a computer/hacker/cyberpunk theme, I think for consistency it would be good to use "dialog" throughout. The rest seems pretty uncontroversial, but if you disagree, or come across any other stylistic choices let's discuss them here. --xensyriaT 12:36, June 3, 2017 (UTC)